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The MacBook Pro 14-inch M6 is worth it for power users and anyone upgrading from an older Mac: 3 critics average 8.7 out of 10, praising the M6 speed and roughly 19-hour battery life but faulting the unchanged design and high price. This page is a consensus of published reviews, not hands-on testing.
Is the MacBook Pro M6 worth it?
The reviews point the same way. The M6 is a refinement rather than a reinvention, and the $1,999 starting configuration (16GB of memory, 1TB of storage) is the one critics priced. Scores ranged from 8 to 9 out of 10, with the gap coming down to how much each outlet minded the lack of design change.
What critics loved
Performance. Tom's Guide called the M6 fast and listed it among the strengths of a laptop for power users. TechRadar described the performance as excellent, and Tom's Hardware said the chip delivers solid year-over-year gains.
Battery life. All three outlets measured about 19 hours 5 minutes in their browsing tests. Tom's Guide rated it exceptional, and Apple claims up to 24 hours of video playback, according to TechRadar.
Display and build. Tom's Guide and TechRadar both praised the vibrant 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. Tom's Hardware called the build quality impeccable and said the keyboard and trackpad remain strong. TechRadar liked the familiar build with plenty of ports, including HDMI, an SDXC card slot and MagSafe. Tom's Hardware also noted the addition of Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
Where it falls short
Design. TechRadar noted that nothing changed in the design or colors and that the display notch remains. Tom's Hardware went further, calling the chassis stale after five years and the notch archaic next to Dynamic Island models.
Price and upgrades. Tom's Guide said the higher asking price is hard to ignore and that the M6 is only a minor spec bump over the M5. Tom's Hardware added that memory and SSD upgrades cost more than ever, and that both are soldered and not upgradeable later.
Display limits. Tom's Hardware said the display is less capable than touch-enabled XDR models.
